Terrible Mickey Interaction at Animal Kingdom

[ILUVALASKA]

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[rlilly79]

A picture, just because he's crying, would be worthless?

At California Adventure, when DS was 4, he wanted to meet Santa. We waited in line, we were the last allowed in the line, got nice pix taken, but the photographer said that he actually hadn't gotten them. He said we would be first after the break for a re-do, he needed to get a new camera and Santa would be back. We played around in the little area they had there, and in the excitement, DS fell and bonked his head, and was crying pretty hard. He was calming down and still wanted to see Santa, so when he and the photographer came back, he got up there for pictures. He had tears on his face, he still looked a little bit in pain, and he was more interested in telling Santa how he fell down than doing much of anything else.

Those pictures tell the story of that moment. I love them.

I think you should have had the pictures taken. It could have been good for all of you.

I think that Mickey simply couldn't hear or understand the kidlet.

Exactly. It's hard enough to understand your OWN 2 year old, let alone someone else's 2 year old. It's like trying to understand Crush's son.

I'm not an autograph or meeting person, and I don't understand it. DH and DS however, love doing the whole thing (I knew we were doomed when DS was 3 and met his FIRST character, Buzz Lightyear*, and saw the autograph books and wanted to get one), and they will meet the same character over and over and over. For me I would just want to compare signatures and see who did it better, but that's not their reasoning.

*Buzz Lightyear at Disneyland/DCA SIGNS! Be aware of that if you go to Anaheim, OP. It's different there. And you can imagine that we talked about that with DS ahead of time when we were heading to Orlando the first time, that Buzz does NOT sign out there. He didn't care; he's never gotten into a "this is the way it happens" thing with meeting characters.

I actually like the idea of photos then autographs. It would make it flow much better, IMO.

And my guy just keeps the autograph book with him; he doesn't hand it back. That just adds more nonsense time to the interaction.

Also OP, please never meet Jack Sparrow, OK? At least not until they are much older.

Lol, my 2 year old son was fast asleep in his stroller during many of the pictures... so I agree, you capture a moment in time and laugh about it later

 

[rlilly79]

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and guess that you were typing this on some type of mobile device with an itty bitty keyboard.

Lol lol lol why yes how did guess?? Lol i actually just noticed i spelled like a goof and went back for an edit...gotta love tiny phone keys!!!

 

[Disney_Princess83]

I've never had them take photos and then sign, it's always been the other way around for us. I would absolutely complain about your experience.

I just wanted to share this experience with you all. I'll send an e-mail to guest satisfaction, but I was pretty shocked when it happened.

I have a DD(5) and a DS(2) who are both experienced Disney Fans. Both have grown up, knowing from before they could talk, how Disney character interactions work. They ask the character for an autograph, wait patiently while the character signs, the character will hand the book back to the kid, who hands it back to the parent and when the books are in parent's hands you turn and smile for picture. With the exception of those characters that cannot sign, this is always the routine. Sometime there is banter, and kisses and hugs, but without fail, it's autographs then picture.

On Friday, we went to AK for rope drop and were second in line for Mickey when Camp Minnie Mickey opened. Mickey took the books, then refused to sign them until pictures were taken. My son started crying, saying "Please sign book, please sign book" but Mickey would not sign. My kids wouldn't turn around, because they know they need to give their books back to us. At one point, Mickey put the books behind his back, causing my son to cry more.

The cast member handler kept saying "Mickey takes pictures and then signs!" but that has never been my experience.

Finally, I picked up my son, took my daughters hand, DW asked Mickey for the books which were without signatures and we got no pictures.

Has anyone else experienced something like this? The event left a very sour taste for the rest of the day.

 

[Luvchefmic]

sorry a 2 y/o was crying sorry Mickey may not have noticed but honestly is the child even goin going to remember this ? Writing to WDW seems overboard to me, if this had not hsppened were you going to write to compliment the other interactions

I think what is disturbing the most is how rigid the child is and this behavior is being taught by example There's no joy when everything has to be regimented no room for flexibility and surprises in life Sorry I just don't see the trauma in this
drama yes

 

[TotalDreamer]

It seems pretty unreasonable that Mickey couldn't just sign first, especially since more time was wasted trying to do it the other way around and your kids were crying. Sorry that happened!

I definitely recommend explaining to your kids now though that sometimes they do things differently, but that doesn't mean it won't happen.

Being the time of year that it is, Mickey was probably "friends with" a brand new College Program Cast Member or one from a foreign country. It also sounds like the Attendant was new too! Filling out a Guest Comment card would improve the Meet and Greet experiences for you and others. I am sorry that happened to your kids...most of the Mice go with the flow to give the guests the best experience possible!

:thumbsup:

 

[Mom2six]

What I find disturbing about this is that the interaction was so regimented by Mickey. It is sort of like turning the human interaction into an assembly line. And also, I find it disturbing that so many people think it is okay to be rude to
A little boy because he's just a kid. He asked Mickey to sign his book first and Mickey said no.

If you went to a restaurant and asked the waitress to bring coffee with your meal and she said no, she personally brings water first and won't bring coffee to dessert. Would you just go with the flow and agree you need to be flexible?

Also, what if you didn't want a picture at all? It is a meet and greet - I don't thnk pictures should be required. Maybe you just want to say hi and get an autograph. So many people said the 2 year old should be flexible, but he did not ask for anything unacceptable or that is not done. I think Mickey should have been flexible and changed up the Oder for the "guest".

 

[DeluxePrincess]

I think Mickey should have been flexible and changed up the Oder for the "guest".

Sure, he could have done that, but not doing it wasn't a terrible thing to do. OP said he tried to intervene, but his DS was still upset. It's ok. Sometimes our kids get upset. You can't really be logical with a 2 year old. Hopefully his other interactions went smoothly.

 

[kris4360]

I see that you are new here, so there are some things you may not know about this site. First, EVERYONE is entitled to share their opinion here. Second, it is against board policy to call someone names. It can get you points which can prohibit you from posting.

to the boards.

She didn't call any one person a name, she was saying ignorant people in general. As for being banned from the board, you just start a new account.

 

[Golf4283]

I think this thread has gotten way out of hand and it seems to just be arguments about parenting.

Sounds like everyone is just going to have to agree to disagree here.

to the OP. You asked if anyone has had experience with this and I will just change my answer to no because I honestly never paid attention to the order of character greet events to begin with. I can't comment.

Good luck and hope your kids had a great rest of the trip!

 

[Kona65]

My thought is that Mickey should have signed the book, than took the picture. Why did Mickey, and the handler have to make such a big deal out of it? TDBIASWS

 

[kris4360]

Exactly We don't know why! We are only hearing one side of the story so nobody can give advice.

 

[smitch425]

She didn't call any one person a name, she was saying ignorant people in general. As for being banned from the board, you just start a new account.

Her posts were getting heated and sarcastic, and I just wanted to let her know the rules so she didn't get in trouble. As for a new account, you must have me confused with someone else because I have never been banned and I have only ever had one account, so I have absolutely no idea what you ate talking about.

 

[Sam81]

OP -I hope you documented the time and place this happened. I would suggest filling out the comment card and sending an email/letter to WDW. This is completely unacceptable and that CM should no longer be employed. I am so sorry that you had to endure that hardship.

 

[mdsoccermom]

OP -I hope you documented the time and place this happened. I would suggest filling out the comment card and sending an email/letter to WDW. This is completely unacceptable and that CM should no longer be employed. I am so sorry that you had to endure that hardship.

Wow. I really hope this is sarcasm and that I'm just being a bit slow in picking up on it. Now we're calling for firings?

Because if it is serious, we are truly in the snowflake generation. Instead of teaching a child to adapt, we need to fire people who do not completely please the child.

 

[ElCapitanAmerica]

This is completely unacceptable and that CM should no longer be employed. I am so sorry that you had to endure that hardship.

I was going to drop this, I think most that can be said has been said, but wow ... some people really think this is a "fireable" offense?

The restaurant comparisons earlier don't really apply. Restaurants have applied cultural norms that have been established for at least hundreds if not thousands of years.

We don't have such a thing for getting signatures and pictures of people dressed up as imaginary corporate characters. "Mickey" also has a lot of limitations, I'm not surprised he can't "even see" or understand most of what is going on a lot of the time. You could make the case that his "handler" could have been more flexible, but again if they politely stated what they understood the policy to be (even if they were wrong), it's not a big deal.

I don't mean it as a commentary on the general parenting of the OP, but just from the way it was described I think most of us can only advise on how to handle it from a parent's perspective, and I think you've gotten a lot of advise in this area. You're free to completely dismiss it and disagree with it of course.

 

[meowmarie]

OP -I hope you documented the time and place this happened. I would suggest filling out the comment card and sending an email/letter to WDW. This is completely unacceptable and that CM should no longer be employed. I am so sorry that you had to endure that hardship.

"Endure that hardship?" Really? Sorry but enduring a hardship would be having to cancel your WDW trip because your spouse loses their job, or because your parents took ill. And you think someone should be fired because they didn't understand an interaction with a child that had already gotten Mickey's autograph twice? I mean wow, seriously. Maybe you're being sarcastic, my meter is off lol. But I think everyone is a little to blame here and should have been more flexible, no reason to ruin someone's life over it.

 

[kris4360]

Her posts were getting heated and sarcastic, and I just wanted to let her know the rules so she didn't get in trouble. As for a new account, you must have me confused with someone else because I have never been banned and I have only ever had one account, so I have absolutely no idea what you ate talking about.

I wasn't talking about you! Sheesh!

 

[MrsDuck]

I know...is this real life? Like do parents really get mad over something like this? Wow, just wow.

I really don't see what the big deal was. I highly doubt that Mickey was trying to ruin your kids' day.

Ditto.

Yeah, I'm not really understanding the issue. Sometimes, in big corporations, things change. Like the autograph/picture policy. Big whoop. I'm sorry your little ones were confused but I don't see how this could be labeled as a "terrible" interaction.

 

[angelmav]

Wow. Kids cry when meeting characters ALL THE TIME. Especially 2 year olds. I imagine Mickey/handler had no idea why this particular 2 year old was crying, almost from the instant that the kid was put forth in front of Mickey.

1. Shocked this is posted here.
2. Shocked so many people have such a strong opinion.
3. Glad I don't work in customer service!